Personally I believe the biggest reason we were voted out of the BET is that there likely will be a handful of BE schools entering the MSG next March on the fence, needing a win to secure their bid. The BE doesn't need an auto bid and our winning the tournament (if we were to do so) won't cost the school that would have won without us there its bid. Our knocking off a last four in/first four out school in the opening round however would likely cost that school its bid.
On the women's board (I am still angry with myself for browsing there) there is a thread where they are basically praising the athletes Geno recruits for being four year players primarily concerned with their degree while JC's recruits, with the exception of Emeka, never were student athletes (not my words). They conveniently left out the fact that there aren't any options for women that come close to the men leaving early for the NBA draft as even if the bulk of the players never have a legitimate shot at the NBA, that the shortened collegiate career as a springboard to NBA dollars exists gives male recruits an entirely different mindset. I had a brief discussion last fall with a St John's fan (on a BE board) after he spoke of how unified the catholic schools were to the conference and how much better the conference's future would be if the football members had the same commitment. After pointing out the fact that both Nova and Georgetown quietly contacted the ACC to see if there was any possibility of working out a membership agreement, I pointed out the reality that for marquette, St John's, PC, Seton Hall and Depaul, there aren't any better conference options and if there were, each of these schools would be openly lobbying for admission.
Whatever loyalty any current BE school may claim to the conference is out of need, not choice and the bulk of the cachet that the conference holds over the past two decades was earned by us.
